Switched on and lighted up!

After a short but hectic 10-12 hours per day work week, my long weekend proved to be just as busy, if not more so. Not that I'm complaining - I made full use of my time running around town.

Friday
Shopped TVs at Courts Jurong Point.
Watched Ant-Man. (It was surprisingly good)

Saturday
Dropped by Choo Chiang for an item exchange.

Put up the lamp shades for the pendant lights in our kitchen.
Attended a friend's father wake in Marsiling.
Shopped TVs at Gain City Sungei Kadut (abrupt halt due to sudden movie plans lol).
Shopped TVs (and nearly bought one) at Courts Lot 1.

Watched Magic Mike XXL. (Channing Tatum is still as hot as EVER)

Sunday
Minor area cleaning over at our place.
Major QC inspection to mark out 'defects' and other random things to fix.
(48 points identified - the bf says I must be every ID's nightmare hahaha)

All the switches have now been swapped out. Pretty switches = happy Mummy. :)

Was told by the electrician on Thursday that I'm missing a crucial part for the pendant lights in our kitchen so he couldn't fix up the shades for me. When I went over on Friday night to pick up the extra Legrand stuff leftover from the installation, the pendant lights in our kitchen was just the bulbs hanging off the cable like this.

I love warm lights but you have to admit they do look kinda sad and bare hanging there. I was determined to get those missing parts pronto. The plan was to get them from Choo Chiang on Saturday morning (if they had it) but I was late getting there and barely managed to barge run in (they've already put out the 'Closed' sign but I chose to ignore it). I didn't dare to push my luck (or try the salesguy's patience) since he had already told me 他要回家了... I had to say pretty please to even get my stuff exchanged lol.

Which turned out to be a small blessing in disguise. When I got to our place after Choo Chiang, I decided to rummage through the boxes that the pendant lights came in and actually found what I needed to get the lights up! Ta-da! Just call me Ms Handywoman. :P

The upper and lower cabinet mood lighting (with warm T5 LED tubes) in our bathroom is also up and running. The effect is as pretty as can be. My personal spa kinda feeling! :D

Unfortunately, it can't always be a bed of roses when it comes to renovations and furnishing. True enough, I got a call from Mega Discount Store this evening to say that the Toshiba fridge I bought from Rakuten previously is permanently out of stock (now that Toshiba has pulled out of the local market, the agent will no longer be bringing it in). I was asked to either choose another colour (I only wanted white/light colours which they no longer have) or change to another fridge altogether. That kinda put a damper on my weekend high since I was promised back in May that stock will be in mid June. Sigh. Gotta shop for a new refrigerator...

Oh well. On a happier note - parquet revarnishing to start this coming week! :)

And that's a (carpentry + plumbing) wrap!

Our remaining cabinets have finally been completed! And most importantly, done correctly this time. WOOT! :D Even got my ID to get his subcons to fix up the IKEA metal wall shelves within the storage cabinet, which the previous owners had up in the foyer before.

Foyer Cabinet

Storage Cabinet

The plumbers have also come and gone last week - the bathroom basin, our cheap US$35 double-bowl kitchen sink (a backdated story I hope to get to eventually lol) and the rest of the sanitary ware (taps and accessories) have all been installed. Love my big bathroom basin~ ♥

Off to Admiralty tomorrow morning/afternoon to collect a carpet I bought on Qoo10 a couple of weeks back for the living room. I actually ordered 2 pieces but in separate orders and requested that shipping be combined for both - unfortunately, the seller missed the special instructions I left and refused to do anything about it, so I have to travel down to their office to collect instead. BLEH~ to crappy service but I guess that's what you get when you buy cheap things - no customer service, so to speak.

Update [13/07/15] : They ran out of stock and asked if I wanted to take another colour instead (no thanks) so I have to wait another 2 weeks for them to ship the colour I ordered to me. Wasted a few hours of my precious weekend for nothing!

Also figured I'll make that trip down to Choo Chiang Marketing in the morning to grab those Legrand Mallia switches I've been eyeing for the longest time. Gotta get them for the electricians asap or work progress will be stuck, cuz parquet revarnishing can't happen till electrical is done (ID said it'll be too dirty otherwise).

So many errands, so little time!

More damage to the bank...

With Bailey's uncertain health situation this week, I've not been in much of a mood to keep tabs on the possible changes going on over at our new place. I did stop over in the early afternoon yesterday to drop off the kitchen wire basket I bought off Carousell cuz the carpenters needed it for installation.

Afterwards, I hopped over to Selfix DIY @ Jurong Point to collect these small stackable storage boxes I bought on Qoo10. Loved the pretty pastels so I ordered 1 of each, except for blue which was out of stock. Made in China so the quality is a little questionable. One of the white covers I got was a tad bit faulty (the plastic hinges seems to be slightly off-kilter and creaks really loudly each time you flip it up/down) so I brought it in again on the same day (before going downtown) to request for an exchange.

Damage: $12.90 each

They're going into either the kitchen, in the tall cabinet next to the washer or the bathroom, between the wall and the WC. Will see how it works out after we move in... Love organised storage. :)

Then I chanced upon Japan Home having a 50% GSS clearance sale. Grabbed 3 of these solid wood stools. I wanted 4 but I couldn't find a 4th one that was stable enough, from the remaining stock in the shop. IKEA has similar plywood ones going for $11.90 each, but the make of this is so much better for the same price. 3 baskets + 3 solid wood stools = too heavy for the feeder bus home, so I had to hail a cab for it. $5 added to the cost but still a steal in my opinion. :P

Damage: $11.45 each (after discount)

After bringing the stash back to my parents', I headed over to Plaza Singapura in the evening to meet the bf for dinner and buy that Monza sliding door wardrobe I was eyeing over at V.Hive. Was told I had to pay in full for the item and not a deposit like I was expecting, so there goes my furnishing budget for the month. :( Good thing was, they've agreed to keep the item for me till end August (our move is scheduled for the 3rd week of September, after the Lunar 7th month). I'm expecting handover to be some time close to end July, so I'll have at least a month and a half to slowly clean up and decorate to my heart's content.

The Tropez ottoman stool I bought off Rakuten a few weeks back to pair with my single-seater sofa also arrived mid-week. I haven't unwrapped it but it looks like this.

Damage: $61.60 (after 30% discount)

Also added this slim dish drainer rack into the same order, to sit next to my double-bowl kitchen sink since I don't have a dish rack above it. Should be enough for me, myself & Bailey. :)

Damage: $14 (after 30% discount)

Anyways, after such a long worrisome week, all I wanted to do was take a breather and spend a quiet day at home today. According to the ID, the foyer and bathroom cabinets should have been remedied yesterday and he wanted me to go check it out today, but I didn't want to cut short my R&R time so I'm gonna head over tomorrow night after work instead.

Hopefully, everything will be spot-on!

ID WWII + a little bit more

Dropped by our place on Tuesday night after work and the storage platform in our bedroom is almost completed! At first glance, I was ecstatic - I absolutely loved the look of that laminate (so much better than what I chose for the kitchen, haha) and it was exactly as what I'd visualised when I was designing it...

...until I spotted this on closer inspection. This would be what I consider a major defect in my eyes. >:( The vertical line for the front row near the steps is seriously misaligned! Can't believe the carpenters are still giving me such shoddy work after all the fuss I threw up with the bathroom and foyer cabinets.

So I sent the ID a WhatsApp message on Wednesday morning with the above photos and asked him what his thoughts were. He called me back almost immediately (the one good thing with him is that he's very very prompt with his responses) to ask me what the problem was. When I told him the issue, he didn't seemed to get it. Once again, the old and much-abused excuse that they've done everything based on the dimensions or drawings that I've given. He started ranting that they just can't please me - the exact quote would be:

"We don't follow your dimensions, you say wrong.
Now we follow your dimensions, you still say wrong."

MY POINT WAS... I'm not fussing about the dimensions now! I'm talking about the alignment and I'm 100% certain that NOBODY told me that it would not be. My drawings definitely have straight lines. So I sat thru his rant and then ended the call by telling him that I will send him an illustration of what I meant via email, which looked like this (forgive the low res version of the original platform drawing - I did this in a hurry in the office with limited resources at hand): 

Did I also mention that he asked me to get the bf give him a call? When the bf called him up at lunch, he complained to told the bf that this was the first time he has had a client like me (read: I was the most difficult and/or fussy client he has ever had to date). And then repeated the same set of excuses he gave me in the morning about everything being done per agreed dimensions etc. The bf told him straight-up to show us the black and white, and not what he/she/they said. So the ID had no choice but to agree to check on this and get back to us. I didn't get off completely scot-free tho - was told off by the bf for not having black and white communications with the ID. X[

After sharing my frustrations with a couple of my friends, we all agreed that it was the carpenters performing below par in this case, cuz misalignment should be something the professionals should be watching out for. If there was going to be any possible pitfalls, these purported experts should be the ones to highlight to the homeowner so that we can all align on how to resolve the issue.

Of course, this is just our opinion but it is still up in the air as to whether it will be fixed. It's all going to boil down to the integrity of the carpenters - whether they'll admit their mistake (or not). Or the relationship of the ID with his subcons - if he can cajole them into fixing it. It looks like a lot of work if they were to do it tho, so I do not have high hopes. In the meantime, I'm going to try to figure out how to cover up this defect if they don't...

In happier news, Rany from Doctor Doors followed through with his promise to resolve my bathroom door issue! His guys came over to switch out the entire vertical strip of aluminium and printing defect no more, YAY! :D Kudos to the folks at Doctor Doors! Glad I decided to give them another chance by getting my other bathroom door replaced by them too. It's not the cheapest bifold door out there but good customer service is worth a whole lot more. :)

ID WWI

I've hit my first major spot of trouble with my ID.

Our carpentry finally started on Thursday, so I dropped by that very night after work to check on the work progress. (Yes, I simply couldn't stop worrying that something would go wrong.) True enough, things did go wrong with the foyer cabinet (wrong laminate) and bathroom cabinet (wrong laminate and dimension). Is this Murphy's Law or what!?

I called the ID immediately to tell him about it and admittedly, I was a tad harsh with my words when his first response was to deny all wrongdoings. He insisted that all the carpentry was done based on the latest set of 3D drawings, but I distinctly remember him asking me if changes were really necessary when I asked to revise the first round of them (quote: "大概对就可以了，不会100%准的"). So when the second round of drawings came in and there were still mistakes, I decided to close one eye and not ask for more changes. Unfortunately, it doesn't pay to be kind. When shit hits the fan, nobody wants to bear the responsibility.

Foyer Cabinet 3D v1

Requested changes for Foyer Cabinet 3D v1

Foyer Cabinet 3D v2

Foyer Cabinet now (white body)

As you can see, the laminate for the foyer cabinet was STILL wrong in 3D v2! (I'd asked for the body to be in Beige Cinnamon Wood and the doors to remain white) If ​carpentry was really based on the latest set of 3Ds per what my ID claimed, then it should have been in complete Beige Cinnamon Wood rather than complete white now - that's the end to your bloody skewed excuse!

Bathroom Cabinet 3D v1

Requested changes for Bathroom Cabinet 3D v1

Bathroom Cabinet 3D v2

Bathroom Cabinet now (glossy white! body)

The bathroom cabinet was in light brown wood laminate from the very beginning and no changes were ever made to it throughout, so I don't understand how it turned into glossy white (have I mentioned that I absolutely detest gloss laminates!?). Plus the fact that I specifically stated an internal depth of 6 inches in those 2D drawings that I drew for them and now they're only a miserable 4, which means I can't even put a single roll of toilet paper! Also, the verbal agreement was for 3 shelves but they ended up doing 4.

So... We only have 5 sets of cabinets in our place and 2 out of 5 (gee, an amazing 40%!) is wrong. Can you blame me for getting upset!? Especially with the ID insisting that they've done no wrong and everything is based on the latest 3Ds. When I blurted out that I don't want to pay $700 for a useless bathroom cabinet, he got all riled up, turning on me and accusing me of having a bad attitude instead! And then he started on how he didn't say he wouldn't correct the mistakes for me. Roti prata man! When the first thing you did was to deny everything! He also kept going on about how he called me one weekend to check the colour of the laminate for the foyer cabinet (WRONG! He called to check for the storage cabinet!) and tried to blame it all on my own forgetfulness. GRR!

Anyways, with all the 'evidence' I gathered above, I sent him an email that very night, plugging up all the loopholes in his lame excuses and he has now agreed to fix the wrongs. 真的是(母)老虎不发威, 当我是病猫!

But boy, that fight sure left me with a bad taste in my mouth... I hope I never have to go through that again. :(

Oh WC WC, where shalt thou sit?

Was over at our new place in the afternoon to meet the plumbers. After much discussion with the friendly, young plumber (Malaysian Chinese who looks to be in his 20s), we agreed to install only the following:

1) Toilet bowl (WC)

2) Bidet valve - position based on his recommendation - slightly above WC seat height

3) Bidet spray - position based on his recommendation - same height as WC tank

4) Instant water heater - position based on my mark-up - slightly below standard height (to make up for my height, or lack thereof)

5) 2-way tap - position based on my mark-up - but he recommended that we move it slightly outwards from the wall for ease of repair / maintenance in the future 

The basin will wait till after carpentry is done since I prefer to have it aligned exactly to the mirror cabinet above it. Likewise with the toilet accessories (toilet roll holder, robe hook). Plus I'm still missing a line of hooks for the bathroom door to replace the ugly, existing one left behind by the ex-owners, which is already missing 3 out of 6 hooks. :P

The bathroom door that bashed my right toe in, has also gone back up again in the connecting doorway to our bedroom. With both bathroom doors in place, we finally have complete privacy once again in our bathroom lol. 

Also done today - bathroom glass panel, bathroom swing door and glass for the cut-out wall in our kitchen.

Doesn't feel much different from when it was an open air cut-out. Phew! Need to stay in the house a little longer to be able to know whether it'll be stuffy though. Didn't managed to get shots of the bathroom cuz the plumbers were already in there by the time I got there, so I didn't want to get in their way.

Finally went thru my VO (variation order) today and my total renovation shortfall is about 10k. :( Stressed out about where to find 10k. Grow on trees? Fall from the sky? Kill myself and fulfill it from my life insurance payout? (Not sure if it applies for suicide, haha.)

In feline news, Bailey had her monthly shower tonight and she is definitely not a happy kitty. Just look at her grumpy face, half-mast ears and still damp fur. I'm a horrid mummy for laughing at her now lol. As usual, she ran away to hide the minute she realised it was bathing time - I had to drag her out (whining and all) from under the bed, after I've closed off all but one of her escape routes. And then she complained the entire time, throughout her shower. 5 years of monthly showers later and still, she hates it. Poor darling...

Bedtime for (wet) Bailey & Mummy...zzz... Goodnight!

'Happy' Labour Day

Spent the entire Labour Day weekend painting and cleaning over at our new place. That's 3 full days of hard labour. After each day, I can clearly feel every single bit of my age - the old body felt battered, like it has gone thru a crazy hardcore workout. Is that what all my weekends will be like once we move in!?

Results from this weekend:

1) Sanitary ware delivered by Heritage Bathroom

2) Bathroom bi-fold door installed by Doctor Doors

Slight imperfection (printing issue) on my bathroom bi-fold door, right smack in the center fold at eye level. Pointed it out to the door installer after the installation was done but he said this was unavoidable. Struggled with whether or not to complain back to the Doctor Doors office about this defect but eventually resigned myself to fate. Will look for wood grain wall stickers or something similar at Daiso to cover it. Sad...

3) Painting by me, myself and I, with the help of a good friend whom I'm very grateful to have - we finished 1 main door frame, 2 bedroom door frames and 1 fat water pipe in the kitchen, with matt white paint from Nam Tai Choon. Met the helpful Auntie again, who gave me tips on what I need and what to do before I start actual painting.

Price: Nippon Bodelac @ $18 / 1L (total damage: $30+ with paint and accessories etc.)

4) Clean up - we cleared out the u-channels where the glass panels will be placed into (the ID told me glass will be going in tomorrow). Also gave the bathroom a light scrubbing to prep for sanitary ware installation.
5) Sanitary ware mark-ups in the bathroom - to indicate exact placement in the bathroom.

 

There were a lot more mark-ups than this but I was too exhausted from all the work that I forgot to take photos of them all, haha. Told my ID that I'll go down there tomorrow when the plumbers are there for installation to go through with them personally, for fear that my mark-ups aren't concise enough. After all, we did work on them close to 9pm in the dark (with the aid of a mobile phone torchlight, lol).

Good thing I'll be on leave tomorrow! 我的劳动节还真劳累啊！

Setting the wheels of carpentry in motion!

Met up with the ID just now to pass him the final drafts for carpentry. At 11:20pm. (Yes, both my ID and I work long and hard hours. But him more than me, I think. Since I was out late today cuz of gym.) These are rough snapshots of what they look like until I can get these drawings to a scanner.

Bathroom Cabinet

Bedroom Platform

Kitchen Cabinets

ID suggested to frame up the shelving for the bathroom cabinet, rather than open shelves against the wall per my drawing for better weight support, which I agreed with. He also mentioned that the bedroom platform may not have as much storage as what I visualised (likely only 4 columns, rather than 5) but he will get the carpenters to redo this one for me. Plus I forgot to draw in the checkered backsplash for the open shelves section in kitchen wall #2. :P

According to him, my drawings will make more sense to the carpenters - his 3D folks need exact details and angles to generate the drawings so he needs to redraw them all. Not sure what kind of 3D people they hire but they sound very low level to me if they can't even work from what I feel are already very detailed drawings (lol). Or is that just the design snob in me talking? Anyways! 3D will take another week or two. :)

Initially, I was gonna ask if I can get a discount should I opt out of 3D drawings. But after the teething hiccups at the beginning of my renovation (the kitchen tiles fiasco being one of it), I've learnt (to my bank account's misfortune) that what I'm visualising may not necessarily be what my ID is seeing or even thinking from my attempts at description. And that's completely understandable since it's my design and not his. So this time round, I'm going to err on the side of caution since carpentry makes up the bulk of my renovation costs. Having clear visual representations of my cabinets would definitely help, to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Using matt white doors for all the cabinets, except for the bathroom which has mirrored doors and a small glossy white one for the compartment where I intend to keep the toilet paper (and which will apparently cost me more cuz it's an extra door, doh). The frames for all the cabinets will be using light-coloured matt wood laminates on the outside (which has always been my personal preference) and coloured PVC on the inside (if my budget still allows it).

Kitchen - EWP 4063M (light brazilian walnut)
Bedroom Platform - DWV 4539AE (mercury elm)
Bathroom - DWL 4532LX (segato naturale)
Foyer - EWS 9228T (beige cinnamon wood)

Matt White - ECG 0011VC (cool white-v)
Glossy White - ECG 0001CC (cool white-g)

Nail-biting time starts right about now...

Kitchen floor tiles is love.

Got a call from the ID this afternoon asking about the status of my carpentry drawings. ARGH. Been hanging out with Mr P much too often lately. Need to start on them P.R.O.N.T.O.

He followed up later on in the evening with photo updates and then a call to set cost expectations for the VO (variation order). Apparently, it won't be cheap cuz of all the extra work I made him (or the tilers) do so far, such as:

1) Fixing oversized kitchen wall cutout

2) Taking down initial kitchen wall tiles

3) Concealing the metal holders (u-channels) for kitchen and bathroom glass walls

4) Tiling of kitchen cabinet base

Am I not right!? Does it not look better with tiles compared to plain cement!?? I doubt I would've been able to stand seeing cement at the base when I opened the full height cabinet on the left. Money that I don't have well-spent, haha.

I'm expecting at least 1.5k and hoping it won't exceed 2. But realistically, I'm not so sure. Just praying that the amount won't break the bank! (Or what's left of it, even) Otherwise, Bailey may need to start earning her keep lol.

All floor tiles now completed! I absolutely adore my kitchen floor tiles. Not entirely sure of my bathroom tiles tho. I'm reserving comments till I see it in daylight on Thursday morning when I meet my ID and electrician. Wall tiles grouting to be done tomorrow and that'll be the end of wet works. Glad I dropped by tonight so I can leave the guys some food and drinks to thank them for their hard work, since tomorrow will be their last day.

Minor imperfection spotted in the bathroom just now:

Water outlet cap stuck under the solid half-wall I asked to be build. ID said this was the original vent and can't be moved. Wall can't be moved inwards too much more either so this was slightly compromised. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to deal with it.